Guest post by Heike BairdBio: Heike is a social media specialist for BLASTmedia. She also blogs for Indianapolis Monthly and puts hot sauce on everything.

“The second we got together, I instantly stopped caring about what other people thought. Because I had Jason, and he had me.”

Thus opens the heart of Emmie and the flood of her memories that shape See Girl Run. You’ll recognize familiar faces in this film (Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott; William Sadler from, well, everything), and you’ll also recognize the familiar melancholy that plagues us, as adults, when we romanticize the past.

What is it about the past that’s so attractive? To Emmie, a kennel owner in Maine, the attraction lies in her high school boyfriend, Jason. Nowadays, Emmie’s married. She’s not exactly happily married, but she’s not miserable, either. Her marriage to Graham is the relational equivalent of a bowl of cereal: functional and edible, but certainly not a ricotta-chocolate éclair that she’s leaping out of bed to eat.

For Emmie, Jason is the long-lost fling whom she thinks she’ll never really get over. His dorky drawings (always frogs) and romantic sensibilities (always idealist) made him special, and she’s still thinking about him years after they parted ways. See Girl Run follows Emmie as she travels back to her hometown in search of Jason, and whatever it was that made their time together unforgettable.

The characters and their plights read more genuinely than those in most rom-coms. I’d partially attribute that to the supporting characters—specifically, Emmie’s brother Brandon and parents. The lion’s share of romantic comedies focuses exclusively on the hot-bodied protagonists; their families barely factor in to the inevitable marriage (or hook-up). I came to understand Emmie and what made her relationships succeed and fail by spending a fair amount of screen time with her family.

The final impressions you’ll absorb from this film may depend on where you are in your lost-love journey. Do you think it’s too late, or do you love the one you’re with? Have you changed too much for your ex to understand you? (Or maybe you’re just happy. If that’s the case, rejoice in how much you don’t find Emmie relatable at any level.)

See Girl Run is a heartfelt reminder to never give up on love—and to run toward it if you ever do.

---SEE GIRL RUN
Nate Meyer 2012
Categories: American Spectrum Features

View the 2012 Clip Reel:

The 9th annual Indianapolis International Film Festival features more than 100 films in 10 days. July 19-29 at IMA and Earth House. See the entire 2012 line up!